Tuesday, February 21, 2017

What is the Aroma of Your Life?

Living a life well lived

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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This morning I was getting ready to hop in the shower. I had my cup of coffee on the bathroom counter and accidentally hit it! Coffee went everywhere. After washing hairbrushes and bottles and hairspray and everything, the coffee was gone. The bathroom smells very much like coffee, though. It led me to this thought,

“If my life had a smell, what would it be?”

Would it be the fragrance of a life well lived? Of joyful thoughts? Of fragrant conversations? Of sweet smelling friendships?

Rotten

Because there are some people, who might smell like the trash. They wake up every morning and splash on some bitterness. To that, they add anger. And then on top of it, they toss a little resentment. And that, my friends, is perhaps an aromatic life, but not in a good way.

Some people wear the aroma of their life upon their face. As they walk, you see the anger. The pain. The hurt. And I’m not saying that some people’s lives aren’t hard. I’m also not making a statement of my life. We all have struggles. If you don’t think so, let me gently suggest that you look at little closer at other people’s lives before you think they have it easy. Each person is fighting a battle as Tim Hadley said on last weeks’ show.

The rotting refuse of a rotten attitude can happen to us all. Because I’ll admit, this time last year, my own attitude smelled more like garbage than flowers.

The Choice

The greatest most well-lived lives are those we examine. And when we’re too angry to confront ourselves and own up to the fact that while our circumstances are often not our choice — our ATTITUDE IS ONE OF THE ONLY CHOICES WE CAN MAKE— we’re missing out on life. If Viktor Frankl in a Nazi concentration camp can say,

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Then, I think, my friends, who are we to say that we cannot make a choice of our attitude as well?

So, let me ask you again,

“If your life had an aroma, what would it be?”

Would you be pleased? Would others inhale with a smile on their face? Or would they fan their face and go running?

I have a tray of perfume in my room. I’m about to go spray some on as the last thing I do before I head to school. I’m also about to decide to have a great attitude today.

For, no matter what is going on, my ability to teach is limited or enhanced by the smell of my life. And a great attitude is as pleasing as the sweetest perfume.